The Reapers Apprentice Redux
by Max Shockley
Summary: ITS BACK! With slightly less plot holes, bad writing, and recoil!


The sun shone incandescently through an open window, an early summer breeze rustling the parted curtains and freshening the air in the room. A slight smile parted my face as I looked up from the book I was reading, my interest drawn away from the plight of the adventure contained within its pages. I suddenly felt the need to get up and head outside, an urge to exit my cozy home so powerful I couldn't help but sprint to the door.

As my hand grasped the handle, the breeze died, replaced by the powerful smell of fresh gore and spilt blood. I looked to the window, my hand still resting on the brass knob, and was caught at dismay as the shimmering sunlight vanished, replaced by an eerie red light. Panic suddenly flooded my body and soul.

'She's out there!' My mind shouted, yet, I couldn't remember who I was thinking about.

With a frantic turn of the handle, I threw the door open, the heavy oak slab bashing into the wall behind it, small chunks of plaster and drywall drifting to the ground as I sprinted outside. I was in hysteria, the world falling out from underneath my feet, darkness closing in around me. As I ran, voices called out to me, their words a mess of static and interference.

Before I knew it I was sprawled out on the grey and lifeless earth, the lush and grassy ground I had been running across just moments before vanishing before me. Another moment passed, and the darkness absorbed me, even the red sky blotting out of existence as the curtain of blackness fell upon me. Before all was lost, the voice rang clear:

"Agent! Wake up!"

* * *

"I said wake up, dammit!"

"You shouldn't be shaking him like that. It appears that he is severely concussed."

"Shove it, Doctor! This man is the last survivor of his unit and I want a sit-rep immediately!"

"If you keep shaking him, I don't think he will be in any condition to be debriefed, let alone talking. I'd advise you to go elsewhere and get your precious debriefings from less injured personnel while I'm doing something more worthwhile. I'll send him directly to you once I am sure there isn't any lasting damage."

 _Hrumph!_ "Fine. But I want a debriefing from him before 2200 hours!"

"Don't get your shit in a twist, I'll be sure he makes it. If he isn't in proper condition before then, I'll let you know."

I was glad that the two voices stopped, as well as the shaking. But, it was a short respite, as my eyelid was forcefully jerked open and light suddenly assaulted my senses, my head throbbed like it had been pounded in with a mallet.

To add insult to injury, one of the voices started talking to me as it repeated the process to my other eye, the pitch of the words just slightly too high to my ears: "Agent, you gotta get up. Your pupils are reacting fine, but I need to make sure there is no other damage."

'Agent? What's an...'

With a sudden jolt, it flooded back to me. I was attacked...thrown across the room by...by something big. But something was missing...everything felt...strange; to say in the least. It was as if the air somehow felt a few degrees cooler than normal. Almost everything seemed to of vanished from my mind, a hole of emptiness in my brain. Not a single mental finger could I put on what I had lost.

I tried my best to sit up from the ground, but alternating waves of nausea and pain inevitably forcing me back down to the floor. I sat there panting from pain and exhaustion, my eyes screwed shut from the blinding light of the room.

But my short respite from the sickening pain was not met with understanding and I was roughly jerked up from the ground, onto my feet. My legs suddenly turned to jelly, knees frighteningly shaky; the terrible feeling of vulnerability overpowering as I struggled to stop my mind from swimming.

"Agent. I have to ask you a few questions to make sure you are stable."

I finally managed to crack one eye open, the light not as vicious as it was moments ago. I noticed a man in a lab-coat in front of me, clipboard in hand and a slightly annoyed expression on his face:

"Come on kid. You can pass out later. Answer my questions, I've got about 30 more people with injuries to check up on."

I wave the guy off, my head still pounding as wave after wave of pain smashed against what seems to be every inch of my brain. I tenderly feel the back of my head, the apparent source of the tsunami of discomfort;: a sticky wet mass of hair making contact with my palms.

I look at my hand for a moment, a sensation of shock coming over me as I saw the blood sticking and further drying to my hand.

My blood…

Blood...

The doctor, quite obviously, lost his patience with me and shouted loudly, each syllable bringing a new throbbing stab of pain to my brain: "Agent! Just head to the medical ward. I don't have time to deal with a slow ass like you. Our other fighters of a more valuable rank require my attention!"

The white-coated man stormed off, the door slamming shut behind him as he crossed into the next room, a glimpse of some armed me with odd eyepieces and tactical vests surrounding hulking mass riddled with bullet holes.

'Soldat's...Rouge MAG...ATP...'

I took the moment of freedom that I now had to slowly walk over to the wall and slide down it till I was sitting on the floor. Sweet relief rushed to my head as my weight was taken off of my shaking knees and I was able to concentrate on recuperating.

Feeling the back of my head again, I could tell the blood was still weeping from a good sized gash at the base of my neck.

'I'm lucky I wasn't paralyzed...or killed.'

A small amount of the fog of uncomfortable confusion lifted from my mind, only to be replaced by worry and concern for my well being...two things that seem to have not been on my mind for what feels like years.

'Everything is so different…I feel like I've forgotten everything...I need to run through everything that has happened.'

I take my first real look around the room, furniture and computer terminals obliterated and the debris scattered around amongst…

"Oh my gods..."

A flurry of yet more confusion and strange emotion welled up inside of me, from the phrase that I instinctively muttered to the scene of viscera and dismembered men laid out before me.

It was hard to tell how many men died, their bodies ripped apart by what could only be a giants hands. Limbs gathered around some bodies, whilst others lacked to have any at all. Others seemed to be asleep, unconscious on the cold cement floor, aside from their bodies contorted inhumanly.

Yet more men were melded with the floors and the walls, the gargantuan strength of the veritable god that stormed through the room making an easy task with the bone and tissue of those it struck down.

I struggled to take another breath, my stomach heaving and my mind still spinning in a warp of confusion.

'Air...I need air. Right now...'

I bolt for the nearest door, my pace somewhat staggered as I blindly charged room to room, similar bloodstained scenes played out in each room I dashed through them.

Somehow, a few minutes later, I had reached the outside of the building. But, the fresh air I had seeked in my blind dash from inside didn't seem to exist.

I stood dumfounded as I stared up at the blood-red sky. No sun, moon nor stars suspended above; stale, dry, dusty air the only thing I could breath.

"It's a nightmare...it has to be. This can't be happening."

But, as I muttered those words, I knew I couldn't trust them. My confusion lifting, I took a new look at the massacres surrounding me, the shock of seeing so many bodies rended apart fading to a dull sensation in the back of my mind.

After a moment, I glance away from the battlezone, yet more memories coming into sharper existence. I'm in a compound...Compound Zeta. Under the protection of an organization named the AAHW.

All too suddenly, the screeching pain returns to me, dropping me to the ground hands pressed to my temples in a vain attempt to get rid of it. It just kept getting louder, driving me further to the ground, my temples thudding and thumping as the increasing waves of pain washed over me. Beyond it all, somehow screaming over it was the sound of coarse static.

I gasped out in pain, struggling to breath, red flashing in front of my vision. After a moment, I could've sworn I saw words break out from the red haze and flashing in and then back out of existence.

'Corruption...Investigate...Unit Malfunction...Necessary Precautions...Information Required...'

And then everything faded, darkness washing back over my mind.


End file.
